Separated twins cleared to go home
Formerly conjoined, Apopka 7-month-olds to leave hospital Saturday
They’re identical and they were joined at the belly, but from the moment they were born, their parents could tell they were different.
Jesi is laid back. And tough. She’s always analyzing the situation, giving the new person in the room the stare-down. Remi is vocal. She wants all the attention, and she’s a bundle of energy.
“They’re the polar opposite. Jesi will be our philosopher and Remi will be our Hannah Montana wannabe,” said dad Andre’ Pitre.
The conjoined twins were born on Mother’s Day at UF Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville. On Saturday, after seven long months, they will be coming home to Apopka.
Angi and Andre’ Pitre wed in 2016. Angi had two children and Andre’ was a bachelor. When they decided to have a child, they were both 34 years old and thought they’d have to try for a while. But that first month, during Hurricane Irma, the twins were conceived. Andre’ joked that maybe they should have twins.
On one of the sonograms, the twins formed the shape of a heart, and doctors suspected that something was amiss. They eventually confirmed that the twins’ livers and small intestines were fused together.
“We didn’t know we were having twins, much less conjoined twins,” Pitre said.
Conjoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. About 70 percent
are female and many are stillborn. Twins who have separate sets of organs, as Jesi and Remi did, have a better chance of survival than those who share the same organs. Twins who share a heart can’t be separated.
After looking at their options and doing lots of research, the couple decided to deliver the babies in Gainesville and have their surgeries there. They thought they’d be there for two, maybe three months. But it stretched to nearly seven months and a total of seven surgeries for the twins.
“I can’t believe it has been six months since our lives changed forever! I can’t believe we have been living our new temporary normal for 6 months! I really thought we would be home by now!!” Andre Pitre wrote in a recent post on the family’s GoFundMe page.
Angi stayed in an apartment about three blocks from the hospital, while Andre’ and the two older kids, 14 and 9, traveled back and forth to Gainesville. At one point, they tallied it up to be more than 5,000 miles.
And they had kept everything under wraps.
“We knew that at some point media would find out about us, and we wanted to steer that boat. We wanted to set up boundaries and have the stories told that we want it told,” said Pitre.
Angi eventually went on unpaid leave from her work in human resources to stay in Gainesville full time. And with the prodding of family and friends, the couple started a GoFundMe page, which has raised almost $10,000.
Andre’ has been working three jobs. His day job is in agriculture He has an aquatics business, which he works on at night. And he’s the worship leader at a local church.
He and the kids spent the weekends in Gainesville, but every other Sunday, they’d leave at 5 a.m. to drive back to Apopka and get ready for the service.
“There’s a verse [in the Bible] that says ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ There’s no way I could have done all this without His strength,” said Pitre.
And the family prayed — when the twins had their first major surgery at 10 weeks old to expand their skin, then the second surgery to separate the organs, and when they had follow-up repair surgeries.
Remi was discharged first, but she stayed up in Gainesville because she had to have routine check-ups. Jesi stayed a few more weeks because of complications with her breathing. She was finally discharged on Monday.
“This Saturday, I’ll move everyone home,” said Pitre. Jesi and Remi will each have their own car seat.
The nursery is ready — a friend painted and decorated it one weekend when Andre’ and the kids were away.
“And how I’m having a sanitation company doing a deep clean of the house,” said Pitre. “My best friend is there overseeing it.”
The twins still have to have at least one more surgery to close their abdominal walls. The surgery will happen in the next year or so.
But they’re the Pitre’s miracles. They’ve beaten the odds.
“We’re still practicing a certain level of discretion of how much we share and what we say. Before you know it, these two girls will be teenagers and we want to be careful of what we put out there. They’re gorgeous, wonderful little babies. We’re doing what we can do to protect them,” said Pitre.